How many calories do I need?

The number of calories you need per day depends on a variety of factors, including your sex, height, weight, and activity level. To get an estimate of how many calories you need, try one of these online calculators:

• Calorie Counter from the American Cancer Society.
• MyPlate Plan from the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
• Body Weight Planner from the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases.

When thinking about calories, it's important to balance your diet. This means that the source of your calories should come from protein, carbohydrates, and fats as well as fruits and vegetables.

Let's say you need 2,500 calories per day and you manage to get 2,500 calories from eating only peanut butter. Even though you're getting the right number of total calories, your diet is unhealthy because it's not balanced.

In general, a balanced diet means:

• 50 percent of your calories per day come from carbohydrates.
• 30 to 35 percent of your calories per day come from fat.
• 15 to 20 percent of your calories per day come from protein.

Daily Recommendations

Healthy diets follow the food guide recommendations from ChooseMyPlate.gov.

Fruit

Make half of your plate fruits and veggies at each meal:

• Males and females ages 19 to 30: at least 2 cups of fruit per day. 
• Examples of 1 cup: 1 small apple, 1 large banana, 1 orange or pear, 8 strawberries.

Vegetables

Make half of your plate fruits and veggies at each meal:

• Males ages 19 to 30: at least 3 cups of vegetables per day.
• Females ages 19 to 30: at least 2.5 cups of vegetables per day.
• Examples of 1 cup: 2 stalks celery, 12 baby carrots, 1 cup cooked spinach or leafy greens,  2 cups raw spinach or leafy greens.

Grains

Make at least half of your grains whole grains every day:

• Males ages 19 to 30: 8 ounce equivalents per day.
• Females ages 19 to 30: 6 ounce equivalents per day.
• Examples of 1 ounce equivalent: 1 slice of bread, 1 cup of ready-to-eat cereal,  or ½ cup of cooked rice, cooked pasta or cooked cereal

Dairy

Switch to low-fat or fat-free dairy products:

• Males and females 19 to 30: 3 cups per day.
• Examples of 1 cup: 1 cup milk or yogurt, ⅓ cup shredded cheese, 1.5 ounces hard cheese (about the size of 4 dice).

Protein

Go lean with protein:

• Males 19 to 30: 6.5 ounce equivalents per day.
• Females 19 to 30: 5.5 ounce equivalents per day
• Examples of 1 ounce equivalent: 1 egg; 1 ounce of meat, poultry or fish; ¼ cup cooked beans; 1 tablespoon peanut butter; ½ ounce nuts or seeds; 2 tablespoons hummus; 1 slice of turkey.
• Good rule of thumb: With meat, 3 to 4 ounce equivalents of protein is about the size of a deck of cards.

Cut back on solid fats, added sugar and salt (sodium)

• A healthy diet doesn't require solid fat or added sugar. Try to avoid foods containing solid fats, such as shortening, hydrogenated oil and partially hydrogenated oil. Make sure that you read the nutritional label provided on most food products. 
• Many people get too much salt (sodium) in their diet. For most people, 1,500 milligrams of sodium per day is considered adequate. Aim for less than 2,300 milligrams of sodium per day.
• Most sodium intake comes from packaged foods, not from the salt added to food at the table.

Understanding Portion Sizes

What counts as an appropriate portion size? This can be confusing, partly because restaurants often serve huge portions that could feed two people instead of one. These huge portion sizes leave a skewed perspective of how much food you should be eating.

To get a better understanding of portion sizes, try the following:

• Measure the bowls, cups and glasses you use every day to see how much they hold. Fill up your bowl with cereal and pour it into a measuring cup. Does it hold 1, 2 or 3 servings? (Check your cereal box to see how big one serving is.)
• Measure a fixed amount of some foods and drinks to see what they look like in your glasses and bowls. For example, measure 1 cup of milk to see what that much liquid looks like in your favorite glass.

Tips for Eating Appropriate Portion Sizes

The best way to determine how big of a portion you should eat is to listen to your body and the hunger signals it sends you.

• Practice eating mindfully: pay attention to your food and your hunger level. 
• Eat when you’re hungry and stop when you feel full, even if there's still food on your plate. Don't feel the need to clean your plate.
• Serve yourself small portions to start with, and go back for seconds only if you're still hungry. 
• Pay attention to when you're eating out of stress, anxiety or boredom. Look for other ways to cope with these emotions.
• When you eat out, be mindful of large portion sizes. Try splitting a meal or taking half your meal home as leftovers. 
• If you want to reduce your portion sizes, a good trick is to use a smaller plate, bowl, or glass. One cup of food on a small plate looks like more than the same cup of food on a large plate. Research shows that people who eat on smaller plates tend to eat less.

Reviewed by: Elizabeth Mesghina, MHA

Last reviewed: December 2019